The Aviator’s Wife by Melanie Benjamin. Publisher: Delacorte Press (2013). Historical fiction. Hardcover. 402 pages. ISBN: 978-0-345-52867-4.

“A mother who had lost her firstborn in the most horrific, public manner, and whose vision was still often clouded with the residue of tears. But that was no excuse.
“An eager young wife who had been shaped, just like every other eager young wife of my generation, by her husband, but I was a wife who had wanted to be shaped, had willingly put herself in his hands and demanded he make her over in his superior image.”

Being in the midst of a novel and wanting to Google something certainly indicates a strong work of historical fiction. In first-person narrative, The Aviator’s Wife reads like a riveting memoir with a plethora of well-researched personal details about Anne Morrow Lindbergh, wife of Charles “Lucky Lindy” Lindbergh. The daughter of a diplomat and former JP Morgan financier, the well-educated Anne Morrow married Charles Lindbergh after graduating from Smith College. Focusing on their marriage, Melanie Benjamin brings the reader into Anne’s life from that first flight she takes with Charles in Mexico to the horrific kidnapping of their young son Charles Jr. to days when her husband supports Nazi Germany to later years when secrets emerge. Despite becoming a pilot and serving as her husband’s co-pilot on many international expeditions, Anne’s simply known as the aviator’s wife to many. In a constant media spotlight, Anne struggles to uncover an identity apart from her husband’s fame. I finished the novel eager to learn more about Anne’s life apart from her marriage– her writing and philanthropy later in life.

FTC Disclosure: I received this book for review from the publisher.